The Stepfather III

Today, I’m going to take a look at the third installment in the horror franchise, The Stepfather.

The plot of The Stepfather III is summarized on IMDb as follows:

That psycho stepfather has escaped from the insane asylum and had his face surgically altered. Now he’s married again, this time to a woman with a child in a wheelchair. He goes on a killing spree once again.

The Stepfather III was co-written, produced, and directed by Guy Magar, who is known for movies like Children of the Corn: Revelation, Retribution, and Lookin’ Italian, and for his television work on shows like Sliders, The A-Team, and La Femme Nikita.

The most notable change for The Stepfather III is the absence of Terry O’Quinn, as he turned down the opportunity to return to the character for a third time. He is replaced in the lead role by Robert Wightman of The Waltons. The rest of the cast is filled out by Priscilla Barnes (Jane The Virgin, Three’s Company, Traxx), Season Hubley (Hardcore, Escape From New York), David Tom (Stay Tuned, Pleasantville, Veronica Mars, The Young and The Restless), John Ingle (General Hospital, Heathers), Stephen Mendel (Night Heat), and Christa Miller (Scrubs, Cougar Town, The Drew Carey Show, Clone High).

The cinematographer for the film was a man named Alan Caso, a three-time Emmy Award nominee whose television credits include Six Feet Under, The Americans, Lie To Me, Big Love, and Dexter, alongside film credits like Reindeer Games, Muppets From Space, and Ed.

The credited editor for The Stepfather III was Patrick Gregston, who has served as an assistant editor on the films Leprechaun 3 and Moulin Rouge, and also was the sole editor on a handful of afterschool specials and the film Cannibal Hookers.

The music for The Stepfather III was composed by Pat Regan, who also provided music for the anthology film Tales from the Darkside, The Stepfather II, and Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III.

The Stepfather III was the last in the original continuity of The Stepfather franchise, though a remake of the original was released in 2009.

The Stepfather III was released on HBO on June 4, 1992, and never received a theatrical release. The reception to the film was far from positive: it currently holds a Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 25%, alongside an IMDb user rating of 4.6/10. The reception was so bad, in fact, that the film was never physically distributed in most of the world – save for, apparently, scarce German DVDs and VHSes.

The first and biggest issue with The Stepfather III is inarguably the lack of strong lead – frankly, I think this project should have been scrapped the minute O’Quinn turned the lead role down. He was the soul of the franchise, and his performances were absolutely a linchpin for the previous movies. While Wightman has his moments, and puts in an honest effort to put his spin on the character, his Foghorn Leghorn Kentuckian drawl doesn’t come close to filling the void left from O’Quinn’s explosive rage-fits and creepy uncle smiles.

However, the issues with this film go deeper than just the casting. Another key problem here is the writing – not only is the dialogue often clunky, but the eponymous Stepfather takes some actions that don’t make sense for the character. Namely, he tries to juggle two families at once – something that doesn’t fit with his meticulously careful plotting, nor his previously-established, bizarre, quasi-ethical standards about both sexual activity and the role of a family unit. From what is established of the character in the previous films, he has a genuine abhorrence of sex outside of marriage, but he is shown willfully engaging with the renter of his house. Likewise, while the character does move on from one family to the next in the earlier films, it was always portrayed as a sequential act – he wants a perfect family unit, but either his anger or external factors prevent it in his mind, so he starts over via murder and relocation. It doesn’t make sense for him to be juggling more than one family at the same time – it is inconsistent with everything established about the character to this point.

From the very beginning of the film, the drop off in quality from Stepfather II is palpable, especially if you watch the films consecutively. The camera work and acting are immediately noticeable, as well as a distractingly terrible blue color tint on the opening sequence. If the title card hadn’t appeared, I would have assumed this was a film from a completely different franchise. I’m sure most of this stems from what I assume was a much smaller budget from the previous installments, but the effect is jarring nonetheless.

However, there was a brief moment where I thought this film was going to be something truly special. The central conceit of the film is that the Stepfather, thanks to some plastic surgery, is now unrecognizable, and has relocated with full anonymity. When the plot kicks off, it is not explicitly confirmed which character is the Stepfather, and what ensues is a precious few minutes of mystery. Two men are shown, each obsessively fawning over the same woman, each with traditional (read: creepy) views on relationships, and each seemingly detached from reality. This, I thought, was going to set up a sort of whodunit of toxic masculinity, competitive chest-beating, and mysterious deaths, with one of the men eventually being outed as the Stepfather.

Unfortunately, it isn’t long before the real Stepfather kills his competitor – at most 10 minutes after his introduction. It is hard to describe how much of a wasted opportunity this was – there is even a major element of the plot that involves amateur sleuthing and whodunits! Such a plot would also provide a neat avenue for commentary on masculinity, creepy dating ethics, and the mentality of certain sorts of “family values” advocates. There’s more than one warped Stepfather out there in the world, after all. This is the kind of unique, new idea that should form the foundation of sequels – don’t just do the same story again from the original, but find a new way to twist the premise.

All of that said, though, Stepfather III is still mildly entertaining as a bad movie. There’s a nice helping of baffling, dated computer magic, a poorly-aged relationship between a priest and a young boy, a hammy lead, and liberal, sordid use of a wood-chipper. Bad movie fans might be caught by surprise with this one – though I still think Stepfather II is the more entertaining watch.